LANDRUM – Operation Hope, a clothing and resale store in downtown Landrum, will be closing August 31 to begin renovations. A half-price sale is currently underway there until the end of the month.

In addition to these renovations, which will include repainting the walls and doing repairs to the building, the store will also work on their mission statement according to Operation Hope’s director, Cecil Glen Plumley. Plumley said the building has not seen any renovations since it was acquired in 1993.

The upcoming renovations will be done through volunteer work and donations, along with funds from existing sponsor churches, according to Plumley. Operation Hope operates on an approximately $60,000 budget in addition to volunteer donations. Only organizations with a budget of more than $250,000 or more a year qualify for grants.

“We’re going to look at restructuring our board and how we choose board members along with what the role of the board is,” Plumley explained. “We’ll also be looking at trying to streamline the types of things that we do. Currently, we do the emergency financial assistance and we do the clothing, and the resale store generates revenue for clients.”

Making the mission statement of Operation Hope “more succinct,” according to Plumley, is also a goal of the organization’s board members while the store is undergoing renovations.

“I don’t think the need that we have seen is decreasing as much as the resources available are,” Plumley said. “That’s common across the board for groups that are trying to help folks, and one of the things that we want to try to look at is maybe looking at what our mission is and trying to have a clearer, more succinct mission statement that we can narrow in on an issue so that we can even begin to measure the effectiveness of what we do.”

Plumley also said the food pantry at Operation Hope will be stopped, allowing local churches to carry on with their free meals for the community.

“We will be sending things out that we have on hand to the churches who do the free meals rather than having so many places do the same thing,” Plumley said. “In place of that, what we want to do is do things like minor home repairs like building ramps for elderly people, help with yard cleanings or if they have repair work that needs to be done that doesn’t require extensive skill. We have some groups that can go into the community to do those things.”

Crisis counseling will continue, as well as the Operation Magi gift run during Christmastime, but Plumley said he and the organization would be working with the city to determine the community’s needs.

“Trying to work closer with the community and the city to find out what they see as needs here that we can address rather than just trying to pick things up like we think might be a need and that might be a need,” Plumley said. “Working with the community, we can find out what the true needs are and try to meet them. Are we dealing with the core issues, or are we just treating the symptoms?”

The support for Operation Hope in the community has “waned significantly,” according to Plumley, and the board is going to try to decide how to reignite the excitement behind supporting the organization in September.

“I’ve been here 17 and a half years, and I’ve seen that steadily go down. There’s lots of factors that play into that,” Plumley said. “We’re not getting the support that we did from sponsor churches that we’ve had in the past, which is why again we’re reaching out into the community so that we try to build a support base there as well.”

The number of volunteers, most of them retirees, is also on the decline according to Plumley.

“It’s getting harder and harder to find people who are either willing, or able, to volunteer and over time our volunteer basis has shrank,” Plumley said. “Part of that is that there are more service organizations in the area, and it makes it kind of difficult to get folks and plus, with the age that we live in, people are doing so many things and it’s hard for folks to carve out a niche so that they can give that time to a group.”

Bringing excitement back to volunteering for Operation Hope, among the other community service organizations in the area, is what Plumley said he and the board would work towards next.

“We have to work on reigniting a sense of excitement and passion from our volunteers and bring in new volunteers to help,” Plumley said. “Retirees aren’t the only ones I’ve seen volunteering. Students who have to do a community service project can volunteer and even students from local colleges have come in for a day or half-day.”

To volunteer at Operation Hope or make a donation, contact Plumley at 864-457-2812.